5 Forensic Lab Equipment

Postmortem analysis plays a crucial role to solve crimes and identify criminals accurately and quickly. And forensic lab equipment helps forensic scientists analyze information precisely avoiding error and maintaining a safe work environment. 

Whether you are planning to set up a forensic lab or want to upgrade the existing one, you must have these 5 forensic laboratory equipment in your lab.

5 Must Have Forensic Laboratory Equipment For Forensic Lab

Though some television shows have made forensics an easy-to-solve topic, the reality is completely the opposite. In real life, forensic scientists need to go through scientific procedures, and medical theories and analyze the collected evidence using various Forensic laboratory equipment. It may take a long time to unravel the mysteries of a crime scene. 

In terms of the tools, Forensic laboratory equipment ranges from ordinary to specific forensic analysis. And every piece of equipment comes to serve certain purposes including evidence collection, toxicology, DNA analysis, and more. 

Below we’ve discussed 5 most handy Forensic lab equipment with used categories for your better understanding:

Collection: Portable Fuming Systems

Forensic scientists use these portable fuming systems to solve latent fingerprints quickly. this equipment uses microburst or typical CA fuming methods. it can also protect the user from the potential risk of fuming. 

Comes with a unique collapsible design, this fuming system is fairly easy to carry and assemble. Hence this equipment saves valuable time and space in the forensic lab while letting the scientist focus on the crime reports to solve the case. 

This machine contains all the components required for fingerprint fuming and a microprocessor-controlled heater in order to heat the CA adhesive. It also has a built-in exhaust blower and polycarbonate protective chamber to resist shattering. The machine was also designed with a carbon exhaust filter to catch smoke and exhaust CA fumes from it.

Some of its fuming systems are made of epoxy-coated steel and stainless-steel manifold to provide essential support to evidence inside the chamber. A Field power kit is another helpful collection equipment.

Evidence Processing: Fume Hoods

It’s vital equipment for many forensic labs and is used to remove chemical fumes and aerosols from the labs to keep the employers safe and healthy. The ductless filter-based models are one of the common types of fume hoods. 

Evidence Drying Cabinets

This hood gives security, drying, and processing wet evidence even in a controlled environment. It also offers the infrastructure required to maintain the wet evidence’s integrity by securing it from possible pollution. 

The evidence drying cabinet also provides a handy shield to keep the lab personnel from possible harmful biological particles.

These cabinets produce a continuous flow of air to keep the evidence dry while using advanced filtration technology for making a safe work environment over the widest variety of applications.

Another helpful part is the units and UV light that produce the cabinet’s extra disinfection between sessions. 

In general, the kinds of evidence drying cabinets differ depending on the model, material, filtration system, interior dimension, and aspects based on the certain needs of forensic labs.

For instance, a drying cabinet with carbon-filtered exhaust and HEPA keeps personnel safe from exposure to biohazards and removes odors. Conversely, a machine with washdown systems and pumps can effectively decontaminate the cabinets

Biosafety Cabinets

 It is also known as biological safety cabinets and is used to clean the lab’s working area without ductwork. Biosafety cabinets also ensure the safe handling of contaminants, pathogens, and other likely risky materials. 

Scientists use this equipment to protect personnel against infectious agents or biohazardous and maintain the evidence’s integrity. Most of the Biosafety cabinets use HEPA filters in the supply and exhaust system to avoid exposure to biohazards. Typically, three types of Biosafety cabinets are available and are class I, II, and III 

Toxicology: Evaporators

Forensic scientist uses evaporators to remove liquids from samples to make them dry. The other usages include extractions, solvent recycling, sample concentration, and separation of solvent mixtures. This forensic laboratory equipment uses gas, heat, motion, or different combinations to provide a dry sample. 

There are 7 types of evaporators out there and the most common types are Centrifugal evaporators, Blowdown evaporators, Vacuum dry evaporators, and Rotary evaporators. The aspects to consider while buying an evaporator for your forensic lab are type, footprint, applications, and speed.

Final Words

Picking the right forensic laboratory equipment for a lab is crucial to ensure the proper application of analytical methods personnel safety and sample precision. In addition, this way you can save valuable time and space which ultimately helps in forensic examination. In the initial stage, these 5 forensic laboratory equipment will help you start your analytic and criminal identifying process. If you are planning to invest, choose high-tech, digital equipment to get faster results avoiding human error.